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Tuesday, January 5, 2016

GateHouse: Battling campus sexual assault

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

January 4, 2016

“If we treated rape the way we treated plagiarism on
college campuses, there would be minimal rape,” Eric, actual identity not
revealed, told The Huffington Post.
Although actual figures are hard to come by--90 percent of sexual assault
victims on college campuses do not report the assault. It is estimated that one
in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college.
In 2014, President Obama appointed the White House Task Force to Protect
Students from Sexual Assaults. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network
(RAINN) points out that research suggests 90 percent of rapes at colleges are
perpetrated by 3 percent of college men. That small group of perpetrators can
victimize both men and women.
As with male sexual violence against women, sexual violence against men is
motivated by the desire to dominate and use sex as a weapon against the victim.
The majority of the perpetrators of sexual violence against men are white,
heterosexual men, reported the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
(NAESV).
Male victims experience similar effects of sexual violence as female victims
such as shame, grief, anger and fear. According to the NAESV, reporting and
talking about their victimization, challenges for all victims of sexual
violence, may be especially difficult for male victims because of gender
socialization issues.
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of
5,000 college students at over 130 colleges, one in 25 men answered “yes” to
the question “In your lifetime have you been forced to submit to sexual
intercourse against your will?”
Sexual assault victims are predominately women. However, it cannot be
overlooked that on college campuses men are also at risk--and the consequences
are equally devastating.
One study shows rape victims are 13 times more likely than non-crime victims to
have attempted suicide. Jennifer Marsh, of RAINN, told The Huffington Post,
“Both men and women who survive sexual assault face similar psychological
effects--but there are some differences . . . male survivors who are suicidal
tend to use more lethal means.”
The Campus SaVE Act was passed as part of the 2013 reauthorization of the
Violence Against Women Act and fully went into effect this year.
The act requires all schools to offer prevention and awareness programs,
publish specific data about dating and sexual-violence claims, and adopt some
minimum standards for campus judicial proceedings.
However, Congress was not done. The most recent effort of lawmakers has not
gone over very well. This past summer, Congress introduced the Safe Campus Act
and the Fair Campus Act. The proposed legislation would address campus sexual
assault, while providing accused students meaningful due process protections.
The Fair Campus Act differs from the Safe Campus Act in one way. Under the Safe
Campus Act campuses are precluded from conducting disciplinary hearings
regarding allegations of sexual assault unless the complainants report the
allegation to law enforcement first. The Fair Campus Act does not include that
provision.
Recently, the National Panhellenic Conference and the North-American
Interfraternity Conference, groups representing campus fraternities and
sororities, withdrew support from the Safe Campus Act because of the provision
that required victims to first report the incident to law enforcement.
“If there was a mandatory requirement to report to law enforcement, few
survivors would report. And fewer would get the support they need on campus,”
Katie Hanna, a board member with the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
told The Atlantic.
Regardless of the gender of the victim the goal should be to enhance the
opportunity for justice, not legislatively chill the opportunity for victims to
be heard.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George
P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland
Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter
@MatthewTMangino.

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.